Noah’s Ark Pitted Against Kentucky Schools in Property Tax Tiff

A Kentucky court will decide a property tax dispute of biblical proportions over how to value a tourist attraction modeled after Noah’s Ark.

The Grant County Board of Education is suing the region’s property valuation administrator, seeking a $130 million valuation—more than twice the original $48,068,200 assessment value—for Ark Encounter LLC, a biblical-based theme park housed inside a 500-foot-long boat-shaped structure in Williamstown, K.Y.

The rural school district wants a Kentucky circuit court to raise the property’s assessed value, which it says would stop the theme park from underpaying tax by $470,288 annually. The religious for-profit ...